After less than a year of running I’m already sufficiently addicted to root around the internet looking for races that coincide with our family holidays. Imagine the whole family’s joy when I found a 14 mile Sunday morning monster just a few miles jog from our base in Swanage. A quick browse through the forum posts for last year: "never, never again", "died after the steps", "the Grim Reaper on the race t-shirt sums it up" confirmed that the Beast would be a good anti-dote to a week of sun, surf and fish n chips…
Chatting to locals at the start it was clear that the Beast was a challenging highlight of the local running calendar. Enthused I lined up at the front of the start area with just a handful of other runners. Strangely the remaining 550-odd preferred to hang back – the only jostling was to get further back from the line. A Beast veteran explained that no one wanted to lead – especially on such a hot day the winner would certainly come through from the back of the field and "the Beast he’ll bite anyone setting off too quick like".
Undaunted (surely there’s no hills down South anyway) I headed off through the undulating fields and woods up and over ridges across the grain of the Purbeck Hills. The sun beat down as we left the woods behind and the ancient church at St. Aldhelm’s Head came into view. By this time I’d moved up to about 7th and squinting into the sun I could still see the race leaders. Turning onto the cliff top path the views along the Jurassic Coast were just spectacular – multi-tiered limestone cliffs falling away into the sea miles below. As I slowed down to take it all in and avoid falling over the edge I was joined by an Exmouth runner and together we picked up the pace steadily gaining on the leaders.
Ahead was a break in the cliffs and this meant 70 steep steps down and the same back up again. We ran another couple of miles along the cliffs before a bigger challenge came into view – a further 130 steps curving up to a higher cliff top. Even walking up was a struggle in the humidity but by the top we were in 2nd and 3rd place as much fitter looking athletes succumbed to the heat. It was time to forget the sightseeing, as it seemed that I had a real chance of picking up the great big cup I’d seen at registration.
Finally heading back inland I was feeling reasonably fit boosted by a water stop and at long last some shade. I could see that we were running along a high ridge that I hoped would return us more easily to Corfe Castle. Sure enough after a couple more miles there was the castle on the horizon but with a few hills still to go. Bounding down the fields I was still making good progress until I hit the penultimate hill when finally the Beast hit me – the power just seemed to drain from my legs completely. I plodded over the rise leaving the other two to contest the lead while I limped in 3rd.
If you are holidaying anywhere near Dorset next September 3rd then The Beast is well worth a crack at – you’d need to pre-enter at www.pooleac.co.uk. You can get a 2D idea of the scenery at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/image_galleries/coast_gallery.shtml?8
3 Rob Downs 1:27:26